


Black, White and Green

by WordlyVaudevillian



Category: Homestuck
Genre: Battlefield, Gen, Skaia, WV - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2012-06-23
Updated: 2012-07-17
Packaged: 2017-11-08 08:44:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 7,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/441331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WordlyVaudevillian/pseuds/WordlyVaudevillian
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A story about the lives of two Derse pawns and their adventures on the Battlefield at the center of Skaia. Written in the second person. Hussiekind writing specibus. A work free of kids, trolls and shipping. It aims to provide exposition for the story world featured in MSPA flash page 3701.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter 1

>Wake Up

 

When you first wake up, everything is cold. And wet. Very wet, too. Cold? Wet? What do these things mean? You guess they mean whatever it is you’re feeling right now. They just seem like the right words to use.  


Your eyes crack open for the very first time. You guess you don’t mind the cold, or the wet. What else is there to feel? Hell if you know. You only have a few second’s worth of experiences to draw back on. You’re curious. Curious. What a strange word. You seem to mind the curious more than the cold or the wet.  


You try to move your limbs around, to get a feel for your surroundings. You are floating in water. It’s not uncomfortable. Even if you did have something else to compare it to, you don’t think you would mind it very much. You try to get a feel for your body. You touch your left arm with your right claw, and move it down to your where you think your left ribs must be. Your four digits find nothing but rigid carapace all the way down. You guess you’re okay with this. A hard shell must be useful if something’s trying to eat you, right?  


You look up, then down. You reach out with your right claw. Yep. It’s a tank, all right. A little bigger than you, and perfectly cylindrical. You have just enough room to stretch out a little. You guess this must be your house. A little on the small side, but you figure you’ll make do.  


You see others like you, in houses of their own. Maybe about ten or twelve more, from what you can see. Most of them are still sleeping. A few of them look like they’ve been awake for a little while already; they are calmly and fondly regarding their surroundings. One or two of them seem to be looking for the front door to their homes. You wave hello to your new neighbors. Those who notice you wave back.  


You notice something a little strange about them. Your neighbors, like you, are black all over. Why, then, are two little white tubes sticking out of each of their backs, and leading into the floors? You suppose you must have the tubes, too, but you can’t really reach that part of your back from any angle. You didn’t really mind the idea, anyway. What’s wrong with a little color?  


You’ve only been awake for a few minutes now, but already you’re starting to feel quite tired. The way you’re floating is pretty comfortable, so you see nothing wrong with going back to sleep. Your neighbors look like they’re getting pretty tired, too.  


When you wake up for the second time, you notice something has changed. Your left arm used to be just a regular old, jet black arm. Now there’s a grid-like pattern of short white lines, perpendicular to each other, in little squares on your wrist. You guess that’s pretty cool. Yesterday, your arm had nothing special or unusual about it, but today, it’s got all these white lines on it! You wonder what cool developments tomorrow will bring!  


You really wish you could communicate with your neighbors a little more, though. You tap on your only window, which is to say, your whole wall. You hope the tapping will garner some attention. You also wish you could find a way out of your house, and maybe explore the world outside. Maybe even give your neighbors a neighborly handshake. Alas, there’s no way out from the roof or the floor. There’s no WAY you would try to break the glass, either. It’s your own house! Why would someone ever want to do something so silly?  


The sound of your tapping doesn’t carry very well, and your aqueous surroundings also limit the force with which you can tap the glass. Also, most of your neighbors, even some of those who were already awake yesterday, are still asleep today. Since you’ve got nothing better to do, you decide to do what exploring you can. From inside your house. With your eyes. It occurs to you that you might be able to see what’s directly behind you if you turn around. You rotate your body 180 degrees.  


You see a single large tank behind you. This tank contains a large, black knight, maybe about eight times your size. It looks like just a huge horse’s head, but you know it’s called a knight. Horse? Knight? You don’t know how you know what these things are. You just know that you know, ya know? It really is an impressive sight. Maybe it’s your leader. The leader of the pawns. Pawns. That’s what you and your neighbors are called. Of course you’re pawns! What else would you be, silly? You think that someone who doesn’t know who or what they are isn’t very much of a someone at all! You don’t really question how you came to know that one.  


Leader of the pawns… no, that’s not right. That would be the King. It has to be the King. Who else would it be? If the knight was the leader of the pawns, then who would the King lead??? That’s a stupid question.  


Maybe the knight is like a sub-king. It’s just so big, it HAS to be one of your superiors. This knight doesn’t look quite finished, though. Maybe you should ask your neighbor. He’s been watching you behold the knight for a little while now.  


You wave at him. He waves back. You point to the knight, and shrug your shoulders. He looks at it, and then shrugs back at you. He doesn’t know.  


You point at him, then at yourself, then shrug your shoulders, tilting your head to one side. You’re asking a question, not just declaring your ignorance. He shrugs back at you, like he’s perplexed by the question. Just what are you trying to ask him? You gesture to all your fellow pawns, then shrug your shoulders with a head tilt.  


He shrugs back at you. But this is a more knowledgeable shrug. Like he knows what you’re trying to ask, but doesn’t know the answer to your question. Even if he did, you’re pretty sure the message would be too complex to convey through claw-points, shoulder-shrugs or head-tilts alone.  


You guess this guy is your new best friend. He must be, since he’s your only friend so far. But you don’t know all that much about him, you’ve only just met the guy. Maybe you’ll save the ‘best’ part for later. You hope you’ll make other friends, too.  


An alarm sounds. But not really an alarm, more like just a buzzer. Most of the pawns have already woken up by now, but those still sleeping are roused rather rudely. Some bright lights turn on overhead, illuminating the area outside your immediate neighborhood. The pawns who just woke up look a little distraught. You guess that’s because they had been sleeping all this time, and didn’t have time to figure things out like you did. You give them your best reassuring ogle.  


Actually, you haven’t really figured out all that many things. You speculated about your home. You speculated about your neighbors. You speculated about the tubes. You speculated about your arm tattoo, and if the others had ones like it. You speculated about the knight and about leadership. And you made a new friend!  


Realizing that you don’t have it all figured out, either, starts to make you feel a little distraught, too. In the new light, you can see yourself in the reflection of your window. You try to give yourself your best reassuring ogle. You cringe. Is THAT your best reassuring ogle? It’s more like a disconcerting ogle. In light of this development, you try instead for a re-concerting ogle.  


Ohgodohgodohgod. Maybe you should think about something else. You’re really starting to creep yourself out. You turn away from your reflection, but it won’t stop following you!!!  


Just as you’re on the verge of flipping the fuck out, a large metal door opens on one wall of the room. You see some more neighbors come through the door, around sixteen of them. They are wearing uniforms and hats in a variety of pretty colors. They must be pawns who figured out how to leave their houses! Maybe they’ll show you how to leave, too! Maybe you can all explore together; see what’s on the other side of that door! Maybe you’ll get a cool hat, too!  


The new pawns break formation and set to work. Three of them come up to your house. Two of them link their arms together to form a step-up for the third. This pawn begins unscrewing the roof of your house. You guess that’s okay with you. If it’s the way to get out, and all. You can put the roof back on later if you want to. The pawn finishes unscrewing the roof, and throws it to the side. He sticks out his claw to you. You see his line grid. Like yours, but different. You take his claw in yours, and he pulls you outside. The tubes at your back fall off with the slightest tug.  


You take your first breath of air.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

>Join the Army of Darkness 

After a few minutes, all of your neighbors are out of their houses. The room now holds about thirty pawns, some with hats, some without. The hatted pawns seem to know what they’re doing. The ones that freed you beckon for you to follow them. As such, you and your neighbors follow the new pawns through the big metal door. You turn back and look at the big tank with the knight inside. Nope. He’s not ready yet.  


You find yourself and the procession marching through a long hallway. You walk beside your friend from the other room. You raise a hand in greeting. He responds in kind. You look around the hallway as you walk. More houses similar to your own contain other creatures. They might be other pawns, but then again they might not be. Whatever they are, they don’t look like they’re ready. You’ve been around other pawns long enough to get a pretty good idea of what a creature should look like. You’re not sure, but you think that two heads on one guy isn’t a very good idea. These guys may never be ready.  


You turn to your friend. He’s still gazing at the variety of creatures in their houses. He turns to you and shrugs. You shrug back. Damned if you know what these guys are.  


After roughly 48 paces from the start of the hallway, (or roughly 67 paces since leaving your house) you all come to another metal door. It opens to let you all through, and then closes again once the last pawn has passed. It must have opened because it wanted you all to go through.  


The room you are in now has sort of a raised platform on the far wall. Hanging above the platform, as well as on the sides of some square columns, are a whole bunch of purple banners and flags. You mean, these things are EVERYWHERE in this room. On each of them is a black upside-down pentagon. You quite like this pentagon. Its shape, its color… it actually looks to you like a nice design for a house. Your mind briefly flashes back to memories of your current (former?) house. Maybe a little bit bigger, and with five sides. That would work quite nicely, you think.  


Standing on the raised platform is a large guy in robes. He’s a lot taller than you, you think. You say you think because it’s hard to tell with him on his raised platform like that. It’s about four or five paces high. Is that what leaders are supposed to do? Stand tall above their subjects and give commands? You wonder if the guy will give you a command to follow.  


As the procession approaches the platform, you are able to get a closer look at the robed guy. They are nice robes indeed, you think. You behold his robes for a while, then shift your gaze to the rest of his persona. His hat, like his robes, is of the same deep purple as the flags and banners adorning the hall. The hat itself is pretty tall; it looks to be a little more than half your height. The guy is also holding a purple scepter in both hands. Wait. Not a scepter. Just a regular staff, with a curled top. Course it’s just a staff. Only kings have scepters. You know this for a fact. And that guy is not the King. You never thought he was, not even for one second. You’re pretty darn sure you’d know your own King when you saw him, and THAT isn’t him. He still ranks above you, though. Just look at his hat!  


The hatted pawns stand in a square formation to the guy’s right. You and your hatless friends stand in a similar formation to the guy’s left. The guy approaches the edge of the platform. You can see his shoes if you look straight ahead. He motions to the hatted pawns. He points them in the direction of the door to his right. The guy motions to your group. He points you to the door to his left. He then raises his staff high in the air with his right hand, then brings it down onto the platform with speed. A resounding, high-pitched “clonk” rings through the hall. The hatted pawns salute the guy, turn, salute your group, turn back around, and march out of the door as instructed. You feel inclined to salute them back as they leave, and apparently so does the rest of your group. You all proceed to salute the robed guy, then turn to your right and march out of the door.

************************************************************************************************************************************************ 

You are in another hallway. This one has no creatures living in it, it’s really quite bare. Just the same dull purple metal as far as the eye can see. The hallway is quite narrow, only about six paces across. The ceiling, though, looks to be at least ten paces above your head.  


You think your procession is quite orderly. You all sort of shifted into a four by four square formation as you walked. The other pawns are only about a pace from you on either side. You are surrounded on all four sides by pawns, with your buddy at your left side. Everyone has the same stride length, one pace. It’s not hard at all to keep up with the pawn in front of you, and the pawn behind you keeps perfect distance behind you. You feel that if you stopped at any time, the guy behind you wouldn’t even bump into you. He’d just stop at the same distance behind you he has kept since you started marching. But you wouldn’t stop marching without cause. Then you’d be responsible for a break in formation, and you could get everyone in trouble for being late.  


With each pace your party advances, you hear a single, “clang” from each carapaced foot stepping on the metal floor in unison. You like to walk at a certain speed, and you guess everyone else likes that speed, too.  


Twenty-six paces. Twenty-seven paces. Twenty-eight paces. Twenty-nine paces. Thirty paces. Thirty-one paces. Thirty-two paces. You step through the open door, following the guy in front of you as usual.  


This room is much wider than the hallway. The ceiling’s a lot lower, too. Low walls run along the length of one section, such that the section is divided into six lanes.  


Greeting you at the door is a slightly taller-than-normal pawn. He has a large black star pinned on his uniform. Must be a captain or something. He salutes your group as you enter. Your group stops in front of him and returns the salute. He directs your attention to a sign on the ceiling to his right. It depicts two pawns. One in uniform, one naked. The pawn with the uniform has some sort of handheld device and is holding the left arm of the naked pawn. A red light is coming out of the device and onto the naked pawn’s wrist.  


The tall pawn uses both arms to indicate the line of pawns on your left, and points them to the second lane. The four of them salute, and then march to line up in the lane. The pawn then indicates your line, and points you to the third lane. You salute, and follow the pawn in front of you to lane three.  


The lane is about two paces wide, that is to say, two pawns could wait in line side-by-side with a good amount of elbow room. Your line proceeds down the right-hand side of the lane. The low walls give way to desks on either side of the lane with little black boxes on them. A uniformed pawn is sitting at the desk on the right, and he beckons the pawn in front of you. He approaches the desk as asked, and you step forward a pace to take his place. You can see your friend a few paces to your left, he seems to be going through a similar process.  


The pawn at the desk beckons you to approach. You step up to the desk and salute him. He has a handheld device in his right hand. He points to the grid of lines on your wrist. He gives you a reassuring look as you put your left wrist on the desk. This won’t hurt a bit, he seems to say.  


A red light shines on your wrist. You hear a beep coming from the pawn’s desk box. A little window on the box shows a picture of you. You find it funny, because before, the window showed a picture of the pawn in front of you. You were able to get a good look at him when you were all in your houses, and that was definitely him. Now the picture is definitely of you. You’d gotten a good look at your reflection, too, and you’d know that ogle anywhere. A bunch of little letters and numbers are on the right side of the picture, but you can’t get a good look at them. There’s a big number underneath your picture, though. It reads “#00002323.” Twenty-three-twenty-three. You think it has a nice ring to it. You’re pretty sure you saw the other guy’s number, too, before the picture changed. It was #00002319.  


You proceed out of the laned section of the room. More uniformed pawns are waiting in this part of the room. Two of them are showing #1009 how to get into a uniform. You get very excited. You feel like you’re in the middle of becoming part of something very big and cool! Wearing hats, following orders, and maybe even going on adventures!  


A pawn approaches you, and you decide to get a good look at his uniform. The left side of it has deep purple and light purple in a checkerboard pattern, and the right side of it is solid red. The top part, around the collar, is a solid, light purple cloth, a separate piece of clothing, with a black, upside-down pentagon on it. A white emblem is in the middle of the pentagon. It looks like an upside-down capital T with a horizontal line through it halfway up.  


In the pawn’s hands are a purple-and-red uniform, a light purple collar-cloth, and a green-and-orange hat. You are getting pretty close to flipping the fuck out with excitement. A second pawn comes up and takes the main piece of the uniform from the first. He throws it over your head, and pulls it down for you. Your head fits right into a hole in the uniform, with smaller holes at the sides for your arms. Easy enough to put on, and comfortable to wear.  


It’s a perfect fit. The collar cloth is next, it just goes over your head and comes down the front and back. Just a rectangular cloth with a hole in it, really.  


After the collar cloth comes the hat. You grab it from the pawn, and put it on your head. They don’t seem to mind. It’s hard to tell, but you think they’re smiling. One of them pats you on the back, and gives you a thumbs-up. Welcome to the team, brother.  


Since there is no immediate need to move out until all of your neighbors have gotten through, you find your friend again. You raise a claw in greeting, and approach him. He’s wearing a uniform pretty similar to yours, but not exactly. The collar cloth is the same light purple, but his main uniform is just solid purple on the right side and solid red on the left side. His hat has a green brim and the rest of it is solid orange. You’re both looking pretty darn spiffy.  


He raises his claw back to you. You raise both your arms out to show off the new uniform. His head goes back a little in silent laughter, his blunt teeth visible in a broad smile. You shake his hand, because you feel that’s what friends should do when they become friends. You gesture to all this. The desks, the boxes, the lanes, the banners, the uniforms, the pawns, the hats. You want to know what he thinks of it all. He glances around, a little nervously. You think you understand. You want to know what it’s all about, too. The King must have some reason for putting you all through this process. Something he wants you all to do. Whatever it is, you think it’s going to be an adventure.  


Welcome to the team, brother.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter 3

>Retrieve Arms From Rack

All of the pawns are processed pretty quickly. The captain walks into the dressing area via one of the lanes. You once again notice that he’s pretty tall, but not tall like the robe-guy. Not as scary-looking, either. A gentle-looking guy, and a pawn just like you. Still one of your superiors, though. 

Your original unit of sixteen gets back into 4x4 formation, and faces him. He motions you all to the door at the end of the dressing area, and ends the command with a salute. You all salute back to him, then individually turn 180 degrees, and march out. A sign above the door says “Training.” 

Nothing unusual about the ceiling in this room, it’s the same height as the one before it, and uniform height throughout. You think maybe you could touch it if you stood on three or four of your buddies, each on the shoulders of the one below him. What a silly thing to think about! You’ll stop thinking of this tomfoolery at once. 

Ceilings aside, the rest of the room is enormous! There are staircases to your left and right leading down to the main part of the room. The main part of the room looks to be about thirty paces wide by eighty paces long! A sign above the one to your left carries a picture of a pawn with a sword. A sign above the one to your right carries a picture of a pawn with a spear. 

Looks like the captain from the other room followed you guys in. He approaches the railing between the two staircases, and turns to face your group. He motions to the sign to his right, with the picture of a sword-wielder. He then motions to the sign to his left, with the picture of a spear-wielder. He points down to the main area, but does not indicate which staircase to take. He salutes you all, and then turns around to face the balcony. 

Looks like it’s time to make a decision. Sword or spear? You guess if you’re going to be doing any adventuring, you’d rather have a quick, light sword. Easy to block with, and to make swift, deadly attacks. 

You head in the direction of the left staircase. Twelve paces later, you and seven other pawns are climbing down the stairs in no particular formation. You check, but your friend isn’t one of them. He must have chosen spears. Good for him. 

At the bottom of the stairs, you see four racks of swords lined up on the left wall, with eight swords per rack. Standing in front of them is a pawn who’s a little shorter than all of you. He has a fancy round hat, and a black star on his uniform. He must be another captain. He motions to the sword rack. Take one, he seems to say. 

The swords are all the same size, and of the same dull grey metal. You take the first one you see, and test its weight in your grip. It’s not too heavy, and pretty well-balanced. Just how an adventurer’s sword should feel. You do wish, however, that you could get one that matched your hat. But it doesn’t matter; you don’t want to come across as picky. You hold it in your right hand and swing it in a downwards sweep. It looks pretty sharp. 

After everyone has picked out a sword, the eight of you follow the short captain to an area in the main part of the room with some training dummies. The floor in this area consists of a black and white checkerboard of square tiles. You think it looks quite pretty. Training dummies stand in four rows of four, spaced evenly apart so that there’s plenty of room to attack and strafe around them. An identical set of sixteen dummies is on the other side of the room, in line with your set. The captain directs your attention to these dummies, and claps his hands. Get to work! 

You approach one of the training dummies. You think it looks just like a pawn, except white, and with a little more garish to its garb. Pink, yellow and light blue seem to dominate its wardrobe pallet. You notice a white, upside-down pentagon with a black emblem on the dummy’s pink collar-cloth. Same pentagon, same emblem, just in different colors. Just like you guys, but opposite, you think. Finally, you notice that the uniform has a hole in its side, and is stained with red. What an odd fashion choice. 

In any case, your fellow pawns have already started swinging away. You are standing in front of your dummy, and a square to its right. You lash out with your new sword to your right with a downward sweeping motion. The dummy is soft, like the material your uniform is made of. It leans back under the force of your swing, and just sort of wobbles in place. You hit it again, this time from the left side. You contemplate coming at it head-on, but that thought just doesn’t seem right to you. Gotta pick a side and go with it, ya know? 

You and your fellow pawns spend the next ten minutes or so on the training dummies. During that time, you feel inspired to use a wide variety of slashes and stabs to inflict a world of hurt on that thing. The captain blows a whistle. He claps his hands twice, then leads you to the other side of the training room. You all sheath your swords and follow him. 

Here, you meet up with the spear pawns, who have also just finished their training. The tall captain and the short captain stand next to each other. The height difference is quite noticeable. Most pawns are just the same height as one another. You wonder what happened with these guys? 

The tall captain directs your attention to a large window on the wall here. He motions for you all to sit on the floor. He draws a small handheld device from the pocket of his uniform, and presses a button on it. 

The window on the wall comes to life. The first thing it shows is a purple background with the black pentagon and white emblem on it. You’ve seen this emblem many times before. It’s the one on all your uniforms, and on the banners and flags. In fancy white text, a single word appears below the pentagon. Derse. Below that word, another appears in the same white text. Home. 

The captain presses another button on his doohickey, and the window shows something else. It’s the same purple background, but this time it shows a picture of the King. You already knew it was the King before the word even appeared. What sort of subject doesn’t recognize his own king? The tall, broad figure. The kingly crown atop his kingly crown. The long, flowing purple cape. The noble red-and-orange robes. And most importantly, the royal scepter, ultimate symbol of his Kinghood. Next picture! 

This picture has a radiant gold background that kind of makes your eyes hurt. The pentagon in this picture is white with the same black emblem. You’ve seen this before on the uniform of the training dummy. White text with a black border appears. A single word. Prospit. A second word below it. Enemy. Oh, how you hate these guys already! 

Next slide has a picture of a white pawn in uniform. He has a spear with a banner of Prospit on it, and looks like a very angry person. The caption below reads “Aggress.” 

The picture after that is of a white knight, full sized. For comparison, a black pawn stands beside it. An arrow points to the pawn, with the word “You” in small letters above the arrow. The knight stands tall on four hooves, at least thirty times the height of the pawn. The general caption for this picture is “Abscond.” 

The next picture is of what seems to be a white pawn, only bigger and wider. Beside him is a Derse pawn for comparison, about half his height and breadth. His arms are big and muscle-y, about the size of a pawn each. He carries a big stone club in his left hand, and there is what seems to be a little castle tower sticking out of his back. There are also big lumps of muscle on his right shoulder and on his back. He looks a little deformed. Like they tried to make a bigger, stronger pawn, but messed him up a little. The caption to this had more words with smaller text. “Aggress, aided by allies.” Yeah, it looks like you and maybe five or six friends could take one of these down. 

Another slide shows a large golden ship. The black pawn is barely visible on the deck at the current level of magnification. The text here reads “Avoid.” The red laser coming from one of the ship’s guns helps reinforce this message. 

The last slide shows a pretty-looking light blue circle on a black background. The circle has some pretty white swirls on it, with sort of a faded white dot in the centre. Closely surrounding the dot is a complex spiral of white lines. You like the look of this picture, whatever it is. You think you saw it atop the King’s scepter. You wonder what it is; what it means. The white text reads “Skaia.” Skaia. It’s a beautiful thing, whatever it is. More text forms below into a second word. “Destroy.” You’re not sure how you feel about this. 

Destroy is one of those bad things, right? Or the kind of thing you do to a bad thing when you want it gone? You aren’t quite sure. You thought that was what it meant, but now you’re not sure. You look around to your friend and make eye contact. His blank, confused sort of ogle meets yours. 

The picture fades out to total black. Some more words form on the screen, but gradually - new words fading in as you read the ones before them. “At the centre of the Incipisphere lies Skaia, dormant crucible of unlimited creative potential. The forces of light are charged with its defense, while the forces of darkness covet its destruction. And so the forces of light and darkness must battle to the bitter end to determine its fate. But take heart, young Dersites. This is a battle that the forces of light are destined to lose.”


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter 4

==>

After that presentation, you’re not really sure what to make of all this. But you don’t have time to think about that right now, because you’re getting another order from the tall captain. He beckons your unit to follow him to the next room. 

Your friend has been fidgeting with his spear, tossing its weight from hand to hand. At its full height, it comes up to the top of his head. He now twists the spear’s head ninety degrees. The weapon sort of telescopes into itself, down to about the length of your sword. He twists the head back to lock it into place, and sheaths it into a fold of his uniform. 

You all follow the captain into the next room. This one has a sign that says “Projection Room” above the door. You wonder what wonders lie within this room. 

The room is completely dark. You feel at peace for a moment, and a little bit sleepy. The captain pulls out a different handheld doohickey from the pocket of his uniform, and presses a button. Red lights shine out of the floor and ceiling in many different directions, just barely illuminating the room. It’s a very round room, and about as wide at its widest point as the training room. 

The captain doesn’t need to direct anyone’s attention to the light display; it’s already captured the gaze of every other pawn in the room. You guess he presses some more buttons or something. You’re not really sure; you’re too busy looking at the dancing red lines. What you do notice is that the lines stop their dancing and shift into a shape. 

You see a big cube. One of its sides is at least as big as two of your friends. The cube is floating above the ground such that another cube could fit on top of it and touch the ceiling, and a third cube could fit below it and touch the floor. Each of the sides of the cube is made of a checkerboard pattern of red light and no light. They look like the floor of the last room, except instead of black and white, the sides were made of red and nothing. 

More red lines come from doohickeys on the ceiling and floor, and write something in the air. “Battlefield.” The cube stops rotating, and the top face flips down to face your group. More lines come out, and form a picture of a castle in the middle. The words read “Derse Castle.” 

The cube disappears, and reappears a second later. It keeps blinking like this for a while. Well, most of it does, anyway. The part of the cube that always stays visible is a pretty big circle around the castle, maybe about two-thirds of that face’s total surface area. The display seems to be highlighting just this region around the castle. “Safe Zone.” Good to know. 

The cube then flips around to show the face on the other side. Another castle is drawn into the landscape. “Prospit Castle.” You guess that’s where the enemy’s castle must be, on the other side of the battlefield to your own. That makes sense. The same circle on the other side is highlighted in a similar fashion. “No-Go Zone.” Guess you aren’t allowed that close to the castle. Not that you’d want to be. It sounds like it would be pretty well-defended. 

One of the faces between the two castles is shown. This time, the whole cube comes down, and is enlarged, with the displayed face being shown like a tabletop. You can’t see all of the rest of the cube now. A slowly rotating King’s symbol is visible, but you’re not sure which one it is. All the light is the same color red. “Black King’s Haunt.” You guess the whole face must be where your King lurks, and his forces do battle to protect him at all costs. That’s the most important thing. The King must live on. 

The cube deftly flips the fuck about once more to show the face opposite the Black King’s haunt. Another King symbol is drawn in, and rotates continuously. “White King’s Haunt.” This must be where the White King does battle with his forces. You guess your main goal is to kill the White King? Yeah, that makes sense to you. The cube disappears. Some regular white lights come on so that the room isn’t completely dark. The captain leads you all into the next room. 

************************************************************************************************************************************** 

This room is really more of a hallway. The captain goes forward about 20 paces, and then stops a few paces from the wall. He turns to his left, and keeps marching. Your unit does the same. The four pawns who were on the left of the procession are now leading the march, and the four pawns who were leading are now on the right side of the formation. You continue on for another 40 paces or so, stop, and then make another left turn. 

You are now marching back in the direction of your house. You’re looking forward to some more rest. Today has gone on for much longer than yesterday did. You’ve learned so much, and done so many exciting things! You begin to suspect that your glass house may not be your house for very much longer. Maybe some new pawns will move in! You do hope that they take good care of the place. You wonder when you and your friends will get to go to the battlefield. You think it sounds like a swell adventure! 

After about sixty paces, you come to another metal door. “Battle Simulation.” You wonder what that second word means. Is it time for fighting already? 

This room is about as wide as the dressing room was, but not nearly as long. It has two large metal doors on opposite sides of the far wall. A sign between the doors depicts a formation. Pictures of weapons fill a four by four grid. Sword, spear, sword, spear. Next row. Spear, sword, spear, sword. These two rows are repeated again in the same order to complete the grid. 

The short captain from the training room blows his whistle and points to this sign. You’re surprised. You didn’t think he’d followed you all from the projection room. Regardless, you get into the indicated formation with the others. You find yourself in the second column of the second row. 

The short captain indicates that he wants columns 1 and 2 to go through the metal door to your left, and he wants columns 3 and 4 to go through the metal door to your right. He blows his whistle once more. You all salute, and split off into the two groups. 

This room is pretty dark, like the one with all the pretty red lights. You think you can make out a red-light-doohickey on the ceiling, and one on the floor. The dual doohickeys activate, giving you light enough to see. You realize that the floor doohickey isn’t actually ON the floor, but is UNDER it. You figure the floor must be made of window. 

The floor is illuminated in some parts with squares of red, and is not-illuminated in other parts with squares of nothing. It reminds you of the big cube, but with only one face. However, this face is only eight by eight squares, each square only a pace long. Your group decides to line up in the second row you come to. You take the sixth square from the left, or the third one from the right. It’s a nothing square. You see your friend to your immediate right, on one of the red squares. He nervously takes out his spear and un-telescopes it. He’s making you a little nervous, too, so you draw your sword, just to feel its weight in your hand. 

Suddenly, a buzzer sounds, like the one you heard this morning. Eight red outlines of pawns appear in the second-to-last row. Outlines of heads, arms, legs, uniforms, swords and spears can be seen. It’s already starting to creep you out a little. Then you see the eyes; little, beady red dots. Granted, no more little or beady than those of you or your companions, but terrifying all the same. 

You want to move forward. To approach the enemy, if that’s what they are. To just get it started and over with already. But you just can’t bring yourself to leave the square you’re standing on. None of the others can, either. 

Finally, the third red pawn from the left takes a pace forward. You take two paces forward, testing the weight of the sword in your hand. A still silence ensues. You look over your right shoulder to your friend. He nervously takes a pace forward. 

All of the red pawns advance one pace at the same time. If you advance another pace, you will be right in front of their line. You turn back to your friend again, one square behind you to the right. You trust that he’ll have your back. You take one more step forward. 

You are immediately assaulted by the pawn to your right. He swings his sword in a large overhead arc. You meet his sword with yours, using both hands to block the powerful swing. You are locked in a static, deadly strife with the ghostly red figure. You push against him with all your might. Luckily, the foe to your left is occupied with one of your comrades. 

You summon all of your strength into one final push against your foe. You succeed in pushing him back a little bit. You swing your sword at him again, but he auto-parries the blow, and your swords glance off each other. Your parry left him on the ropes, so you aim for a quick strike down his torso from the right. Your sword goes right through the figure. He rapidly flashes and disappears. You occupy the space where he previously stood. 

You’re lucky there weren’t any more pawns behind him, because they could now get the drop on you from such a position. Instead, you take advantage of the break in enemy line, and advance one pace. You turn 180 degrees to get a look at the fray. 

Your friend has engaged the pawn to his right, and they are struggling spear-to-spear. He looks like he needs your help. You quickly lash out to your left, and slay the red pawn he’s struggling with. 

The battle doesn’t last very long after that. Your unit mops up the remaining forces before you can offer help. No friendly casualties, it seems. You wonder if you would have really gotten hurt if their swords slashed you. After all, they were just red lights… right? 

Your team gets back into formation to pass through the two-paces-wide door on the other side of the room.


End file.
